Julius Caesar Quotes

Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure.

One must be especially wary of an Administration that seems to feel that what it judges to be a good end, always justifies any means.

When a public official accepts a gift he dissolves the pearl of independence in the vinegar of obligation.

There are some acts of justice which corrupt those who perform them.

You learn to look the other way. If you go after all the corruption, you end up blowing up your own administration.

No matter how healthy a man's morals may be when he enters the White House, he comes out again with a pock-marked soul.

The danger inherent in all force grows stronger when it is likely to gain success, for then it becomes temptation.

As Angelo discovered in Measure for Measure, nothing corrupts like virtue.

Inauthenticity is endemic in American politics today. The political backrooms where I spent much of my career were just as benighted as my personal life, equally crowded with shadowy strangers and compromises, truths I hoped to deny. I lived not in one closet but in many.

The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.

Never bend the rules. You bend the rules a little bit and then it's a slippery slope.

To do a great right do a little wrong.

Almost anything that can be praised or advocated has been put to some disgusting use. There is no principle, however immaculate, that has not had its compromising manipulator.

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

… they seem to be such as would not swear, whore, nor be drunk, but they would lie, cozen and deceive.

The first sign of corruption in a society ... is that the ends justify the means.

I'm guilty as sin. I did something morally wrong. I gave in to the prestige and power, the things that went with my job. I knew that the Governor, the man that appointed me, wanted no recommendation for clemency in any death case.

Many government officials have very high moral standards at the beginning of their duties, but after a while some officials sway from the right path and easily fall into the temptation of bribery and fraud.

Governor [Myron] Herrick is not a bad man; he is simply weak. He is one of those men who can do dishonest things honestly.

… how easily moral courage and common decency can be subverted by political expediency.

If any artist abuses his audience as a means to any end, noble or ignoble, he better have a damn good reason for it.

I wanted to write a book about people who have the best intentions and think - really, truly think - that they're doing the right thing. And then they realize that when those ideals come knocking at their windowsill, a lot of times they will suddenly disavow those ideals.

Very rarely do people make big compromises with their integrity. Almost every compromise is a small one that is easily justified. The downhill slide is usually a result of many little compromises.

I am no longer amazed by how quickly a man will justify his change of heart when a spear is leveled his way.

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.